While thoughts of seeds & blooms are floating around in the back of my mind, I'm not ready to get back into the gardening swing of things and am trying to enjoy what little snow & ice we get out there as well as the birds. (I put out seed & cracked corn as well as stale bread, cereal, chips, cookies & pretzels instead of throwing that stuff out - unless it's moldy, then it goes in the trash). I'm trying to catch up on reading (see the current reading selction here on our group home page), simplifying our home and taking stock of 2008 & how I want to better take care of myself in 2009. (And get over this pesky sinus infection/strep/upper respiratory thing I've had since the beginning of December!)

We've had a Downy Woodpecker visiting for the last few days and I just had Hubby put the fresh tree we had for Christmas out in the corner of the back yard so it can serve as a shelter for birds thru the rest of Winter. (I zip tied it to the fence and sprinkled cracked corn around the base and all over it to get the birds interested - of course there's a couple of interested squirrels thanks to the corn!)

I don't know where our cardinals have gone (last seen around Turkey Day) or the Morning Doves but there's been a Downy Woodpecker visiting for a couple of weeks so he's been fun to watch! The usual wrens & squirrels have been visiting multiple times a day for cracked corn & any stale breads, cookies, etc I throw out there.

We've had a consistent coating of ice & snow but more bitter cold weather than anything else. (We're snow loving cold weather peeps). The ice on the rivers, bay & ocean has been neat to look at and take pics of at least!

We've been annoyingly cold or annoyingly warm (though mostly cold) but finally had a descent gorgeous snowfall all day yesterday & today has been so beautiful w/the sun shining & blue sky illuminating all the snow!

More catalogs arrivwd today but I didn't look to see which ones! And the Cardinals are back from being on holiday!

I can't for the life of me figure out why my comment above repeated itself nearly a half dozen times! And right now I can't delete the extras!

Anyway, I just watched a wonderful documentary on PBS's Nova- The Incredible Journey of the Butterflies, about the annual flight to Mexico the Monarchs make. Such beautiful creatures! Love finding them in my gardens!

I'd say that depends on how much room you have to keep them in case you need to keep them in doors longer than expected because of continuing cold weather. I use those plastic 'greenhouses' with the removable domes and since our bedroom has the best light and temp, I can get about 6 or 7 of them on top of the computer desk and they can stay there indefinately. (If you use them, make sure to take the lids off once the seeds sprout to avoid mold from the excess moisture and warmth).

If you're starting indoors, seeds should be sowed in doors an average of 12 weeks before planting outside. Given your climate, I would probably add a few more weeks to that before taking your seedlings outside to acclimate to the temps.

I'm dying to start this year. I have so much more space than when I was in the apartment. I keep trying to decide what to plant and where. My silly husband has been feeding the Canadian geese in our backyard and I went out and told them this morning that if they ate my seeds I would have goose for dinner...not really but they don't know that. :)

Lol Shelby! One great tip I use for keepong the squirrels out of my newly planted seeds & bulbs is to sprinkle the entire area of dirt (which has the seeds or bulbs underneath) with cayenne AND red pepper flakes! It works with squirrels, not sure about geese through! It's worth a try!

Ooo - a lake in your back yard?! Sounds nice! Yeah, your Hubby probably shouldn't feed them, lol! (They're not so great to have around if you or your children will be using the backyard area - geese poo can make ya sick).

We have an outbuilding and I'm thinking of putting a shelf out there with a lamp so that I can start some annuals. It's heated, but not as warm as inside the house. Think they would make it? I'm just so eager to get started on something, anything garden related.

Vegetable seeds were on sale at the hardware store last weekend and I stocked up! This will be my first attempt at a vegetable garden so I'm really excited. I need to start reading up so I'm ready.

Katie do you have a thermometer in there you could check to see how cold it gets even with the light on? That way you can make sure it doesn't get too cold @ night for the seeds. You should probably start with the plastic 'greenhouses' I mentioned a couple of posts above - I have a great book about seeds & starting seeds... Or is it a dvd? (Still getting over a brutal cold & bronchitis so I'm a little foggy!) I'll look for it over this weekend and let you know - if it's the dvd, I can make a copy a send it to you.

Birds here have been playing hide & seek because of the up a down temps (I think anyway). I bought more suet today since our little Downy Woodpecker hasn't been back since he finished what was out there and I read in Birds & Blooms that Downy's love the stuff. Of course now I'm out of regular seed so I'll make another trip to the hardware store later.

Thanks for the tips, Jo! My husband is clearing some shelving off for me this week. I might still wait a little while since it's still very early. I'm just so excited about gardening this year and I want to start SOMETHING.

My office has floor-to-ceiling windows and my coworkers and I have noticed a lot of birds around lately. We've still had some really cold days so I'm surprised. At first I thought they were all just plump little things, but then someone told me they puff up their feathers to stay warm which is why they look bigger than they really are.

That's crazy! Enjoy your snow day. I was watching the news this morning and I couldn't believe all the southern states that were getting snow. The little kids in Atlanta outside playing in it. They were so excited and adorable!

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